The 2013 Best New Band Ballots

A peek at music-based democracy in action!

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IMAGE: Jason Quigley

Every year, in the spirit of transparency—and to make it perfectly clear that Best New Band is a poll, not an arbitrary list—we publish the ballots of every Best New Band voter. What follows is that list of voters names, titles and the bands or artists that they casted votes for. We offer voters the opportunity to conceal their identity, which is the reason some ballots are listed as "anonymous."

As my predecessor often pointed out, there may be imperfections in this list, as copying and pasting around 150 entries is, frankly, a bit mind-numbing. But then, the entire Best New Band process isn't an exact science. Every year, our voting pool grows—of course, not everyone returns a ballot, which is why the total number of votes fluctuates—but does it ever represent the true breadth of the Portland music scene? Probably not. It's a big, wonderfully eclectic community, after all. But it's something we aim to improve each year. This year, we asked readers to nominate new voters, which added about two dozen names to the list. Hopefully, next year we'll have an even bigger and more diverse list of contributors, to make this as accurate a litmus test as possible.

In an effort for even fuller disclosure, I have included the full text of the instructions sent to each voter, to give you an idea of how the poll is tabulated. If you are a voter and notices any mistakes pertaining to your particular ballot, please let me know by emailing bestnewband [at] wweek.com.

Thanks for reading and, if you're name is on the list below, for your participation!

The Letter

Dear Esteemed Member of the Portland Music Community,

Congratulations! You have been selected by our diligent team of local music scientists to take part in Willamette Week's Best New Band Poll 2013, where the Portland music community looks back over the last year and crowns one group, solo artist or DJ the greatest new talent in town.

This is my first year doing this as music editor, and we’re doing things a bit differently. Here's what we need from you (please read all this carefully):

Go to the following and follow the directions carefully: [POLL REMOVED] As always, you can vote for any music-making entity, be it a band, solo performer, DJ or an MC. You can rank them one through five, or give no rankings if you want to spread your points equally. If you can't think of five new acts that have made an impact on you in the last year, then just send us however many you like, whether it's four, three, two or just one. "New," obviously, is relative (just like "band" and even "best"). Don't stress out on the wording too much. BUT DO STRESS ON REPLYING BY THE DEADLINE: TUESDAY, MARCH 26 at 11:59 PM.

When all the ballots have been collected, we will assign points for each band you voted for based on how you ranked them. (No. 1 = 5 pts., No. 2 = 4 pts., No. 3 = 3 pts., etc.) If you don't rank your votes by numbering each band, the points will be divided and distributed equally among your selections. We will then add up the points from all the ballots and come up with a top 10, which will be published in an upcoming issue of Willamette Week along with profiles and photos and other such fanfare. The number one band will appear on the cover of the paper and, if available, will headline WW's Best New Band showcase.

You can vote for any band you like, as long as it is not a band you play in (you can vote for bands you work with—as long as you're voting as a TRUE FAN and not just a profiteer).

We also need your full name and your role in the music community. This is so important I'm going to use caps: IF YOU DO NOT INCLUDE YOUR NAME AND TITLE IN YOUR FORM, YOUR VOTES WILL NOT BE COUNTED. Your votes will be published online, but if you would like your votes to remain anonymous, we can do that. Just let us know by responding to this email.

DO NOT VOTE FOR THESE PAST WINNERS (as much as we like them all):

Aan

AgesAndAges

Ah Holly Fam'ly

Alan Singley and Pants Machine

Alela Diane

And And And

Atole

Au

Blind Pilot

Blitzen Trapper

Blouse

Brainstorm

The Builders & The Butchers

Climber

Clorox Girls

Copy

Dat'r

Deelay Ceelay

Derby

DJ Beyonda

Dolorean

Dragging An Ox Through Water

Explode Into Colors

Fist Fite

Grandparents

Grouper

Guidance Counselor

Hey Lover

Horse Feathers

Hosannas

Jared Mees

The Kingdom

Laura Gibson

Lifesavas

Lion Fever

LKN

Loch Lomond

Lost Lander

Lovers

Menomena

The Minds

Miracles Club

Monarques

New Blood

The Nice Boys

Nick Jaina

Norfolk & Western

Nurses

Old Believers

Old Light

Onuinu

Operative

Paint By Numbers

Please Step Out of the Vehicle

Point Juncture, WA

Pure Country Gold

Pure Bathing Culture

Purple and Green

Radiation City

The Ready

Red Fang

Reva Devito

Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside

Kelli Schaefer

Siren’s Echo

The Shaky Hands

The Snuggle Ups

Sons of Huns

Starfucker

Swan Island

Talkdemonic

The Thermals

Tope

Tractor Operator

Tu Fawning

Typhoon

Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Valet

Viva Voce

Wampire

Weinland

Wet Confetti

White Fang

White Rainbow

Wild Ones

World's Greatest Ghosts

Y La Bamba

Youth

Ok, you have your instructions! Let's introduce this city to a bunch of new music!

Fine print: If you received this email at more than one email address, please only respond once, with one set of votes. If this ballot arrived at a general email address for a record store, recording studio, bar, etc., please do not respond with more than two ballots from two separate employees who identify themselves as such. Artists that have placed in the BNB Poll in the past get one vote per band—in the event that more than one ballot is returned from an artist/group or more than two from an invited organization, we will count the earliest ballot(s) to arrive in our inbox and disqualify subsequent ballots from said group/organization (this is meant to avoid ballot-stuffing). If you have questions about this, you can email Matt at msinger at wweek.com.

Thanks so much! We get really excited at the chance to put local music on the cover of our paper each year, and we discover a lot of new music thanks to your votes. Thanks for all you do, all year-round, to strengthen this wonderful music community.